Servants of the Most Merciful
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Episode 2: The Art of Humility
Sh. Omar Suleiman covers the first description of the servants of the Most Merciful - "those who tread lightly on the Earth and when they are approached by the ignorant, respond with Salam." What are the connotations of these characteristics?
Graphic Notes
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Wa ala aqibatu lilmuttaqeen Allahumma salli wa sallam wa barak al abdika wa rasulika Muhammadin salallahu alayhi wa sallam wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa salam tasliman kathira So, just as everyone is getting logged back in inshallah ta'ala I wanted to first and foremost apologize for the technical difficulties that we had tonight And inshallah ta'ala we'll try to see if maybe we can re-record a shorter version of the juz' And put it back up. It seems like Zoom had some issues tonight, it was down. So, inshallah ta'ala I'll go ahead and just continue with the discussion And as I started yesterday, we started talking about Ibadur Rahman We started talking about the servants of the most merciful And we talked about how people sort of glance over the connection of Ibadur Rahman The connection of servants of the most merciful and the connotations of that And go straight into the description, they go straight into what that means To be from the servants of the most merciful Some of the technical details of how people carry themselves as the servants of the most merciful But they don't pay attention to the beauty of the title servants of the most merciful So, tonight bi'ithni Allahi ta'ala I'm going to go ahead and talk inshallah ta'ala About the first ayah, or the first description, but not the entirety of it Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, That those who tread lightly on the earth and when they are approached by the ignorant They respond with salam So, this is also one of those things where typically you'll see that people will You know, sort of glance over the part where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala describes People treading lightly on the earth and they'll go straight to how we deal with the ignorant And one of the reasons for that is that there are so many stories from the salaf About how to deal with ignorant people
Literally, if you were to take any biography of khulafa' rashideen Of the righteous khulafa' Of the companions, of the pious predecessors, of the sages throughout Islamic history You're going to see over and over and over again The praise of their character in the face of taunting In the face of very ignorant people that approach them in ways that were not befitting So, inshallah ta'ala I want to focus on this first part Because I think it's extremely beautiful What does it mean to tread the earth lightly? What are the connotations of treading the earth lightly? How does that reflect rahma? How does that reflect mercy? And this is a deep, deep tafsir that you'll find of this ayah When you pay attention to all of the connotations that come from this ayah So, first and foremost What causes you to have inherent rahma with the creation as a default before any infraction Is that you know how much rahma ar-rahman has had with you And so, it's still connected to the most merciful And that's why the ulama say that when you get angry with someone Then first get angry with yourself When you think about taking revenge on someone Think about how many times Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala did not immediately take revenge on you For a transgression that you had in regards to one of his rights When you see yourself slow to forgiveness Think about how quick Allah is to forgiveness with you And so, the first way that you walk the earth with rahma, with mercy Is this inherent understanding that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has been so merciful with me Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has so much rahma with me And allows me to walk this earth and allows me to benefit from this earth And allows me at times that you know, those mistakes
Those inherent sins that are going to come as a part of my being Banu Adam from the children of Adam alayhi salam And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is merciful with me Allah azawajal forgives me and he gives me a time to repent So, the first way that you connect to ar-rahman in this concept of being ibadah rahman In regards to how you walk the face of the earth Is that you treat the world around you with this sense of gratitude Because you know how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has been merciful with you The difference between the first part of this verse and the second part of this verse also الذين يمشون على الأرض هون Those who tread lightly on the earth And those who respond with noble character in the face of insult, in the face of rudeness Is that, you know, الذين يمشون على الأرض هون Is before anything bad happens It's just your very essence and your very presence And so your very presence and essence is one of rahmah, is one of mercy And then if something happens to you, then it's one of forgiveness And so, before the fact, it's mercy After the fact, when you come across people that don't live up to those standards That don't hold themselves to a higher standard, that act in certain ways That's where maghfirah comes in, that's where afu comes in That's where pardoning and forgiving comes in And what drives you then? So in the same way that you walk this earth with mercy Because you realize how much mercy the most merciful has had with you You approach with such a level of humility You're humbled by Allah's mercy upon you in your very essence The second one is what's going to cause you to forgive and pardon and overlook After someone violates you regardless of that noble character Is how badly you want Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to forgive you And by the way, this is not excusing zulm We're going to get to that
This is not excusing oppression or excusing harm or saying to accept abusive situations That's a different category which we'll talk about tomorrow insha'Allah ta'ala But we're just talking about the noble quality of forgiveness and being able to overlook That's after the fact and it's because of how badly you want Allah to forgive you But the way that you walk the face of this earth with nobility Is because of how you know that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has had mercy with you And so you automatically approach everything with a sense of mercy So let's go to the connotations Alladheena yamshoona ala al-ardi hauna The first thing the scholars talk about here is the literal walk of a person The way that a person walks and carries themself has so much in what it tells about the person Especially in certain cultures, okay? So it's not limited to the physical act of taking steps But how you carry yourself And this is why we find that Luqman Al-Hakeem alaihi salam says to his son Waqsid fee mashshika, waghbid min sultika He says that be gentle, be moderate when you walk and keep your voice low Inna ankara al-aswati la sult al-hameer And the most despised of voices is the one that resembles the brain of a donkey, okay? So this is something that literally comes into play here The way that a person carries themself, how you walk, your body language is so important What is the body language that you have? Because Imam Hassan Al-Basri rahimahullah He described in salah for example, your body language in prayer He said that if the heart has khushur, if the heart is humble Then all of the limbs will be humble as well They'll all have a sense of stillness as well And so humility carries into your body language as well The way that you look at people, the way that you walk to people, past people
The way that you give people attention or ignore them All of these things, the tone that you use in your voice when you talk to people, right? These are all things that we learn from the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam That have so much to do with tawadhar, that have so much to do with humility And so it's not just the physical act of taking steps But rather it's body language, what does body language suggest about humility? And if you remember last night when we talked about this Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala by calling those people I say us hoping that we would be amongst them because we aspire to be from those people Calling those people Ibadur Rahman, calling them the servants of the most merciful Calling us, bid'ah, the servants of the most merciful We said that Allah azawajal chose the observable characteristics So that the one who sees the difference in behavior between the oppressors Between the Abu Jahls and the Abu Lahabs of the world And the Abu Bakrs and the Abdurrahman ibn Aws of the world They will clearly be able to discern who is inspired by rightful guidance And who carries themselves in a way that befits noble guidance So Allah azawajal addresses the body language, the exterior, the very observable characteristics The Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam of course teaches us that it's not just the walk Or it's not just the body language, but it's the attitude that it suggests So he said salallahu alayhi wasalam in a hadith from Ibn Umar radiallahu ta'ala anhu That baynama rajulun yajurru iza'ar That there was a man that was walking and he was dragging his stove He was dragging his iza'ar, his garment with pride, okay? So it was out of a sense of pride Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala khasafa bihi al-ard Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala swallowed him in the earth And he would continue to be sinking into the earth until the day of resurrection So the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam is saying that there was once a man That was walking with a great sense of arrogance, dragging his garment And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala caused the earth to swallow him, okay? Because of that pride
And he would continue to sink in that earth until the day of judgment Compare that to Abu Bakr as-Siddiq radiallahu ta'ala anhu Who had a defect that caused him, caused his thawb at times, caused his garment to drag And he asked the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, he said that Is this going to be against me on the day of judgment because the thawb is dragging And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said you don't do it out of pride Hence you have the difference of opinion amongst the ulema Which is if a person drags their garment out of pride It's obviously haram and it falls into the category of major sin in fact If it's insisted upon in this way But if a person's garment goes beneath the ankle, not out of a sense of pride Does it still fall under the element of sin? There's a difference of opinion amongst the scholars And I'm not going to talk about that too much right now But just to compare with the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam talked about In terms of that man from the previous ummah And in terms of what we see from Bani Israel Compared to Abu Bakr as-Siddiq radiallahu ta'ala anhu So, next we look into some of the ahadith and narrations in this regard That speak about this from the perspective of the salaf and how they interpreted it Aisha radiallahu ta'ala anha, who's the daughter of Abu Bakr radiallahu ta'ala anhu of course And who is a scholar of this ummah She once saw a man walking and the man walking was walking You know, he was walking like he was sick Like he had some sort of issue He wasn't able to sleep at night, whatever it may be The point is, literally he's described as walking like a dead man, okay? And as he was walking, you know, in a way that was slow In a way that suggested he was sick or whatever it may be Aisha radiallahu ta'ala anhu, she asked, she said, what is it with him?
What's wrong with him? And the people responded and they said, Ya ummul mu'mineen, he's from the qurra' He's from the reciters Meaning he's from the people that pray all night, okay? So because he prays all night, he's demonstrating how tired he is Because of his prayer at night And subhanAllah, the salaf, the pious predecessors They used to actually project their voices So that people would not think they were up all night reading the qurra'an They would try to walk with a straight posture So that people would not think that they were praying all night If they made it known to people that they had heard something that happened at night Or that they saw a star at night or whatever it may be They would make it a point to say that they were up not because of prayer But because of something else If they didn't have food, they would still display something Just so people didn't think they were being people of zuhud, people of asceticism So Aisha radiAllahu anha, she took great exception to this idea She was very offended by this idea that this man was walking this way Because he had been praying all night He was from the qurra'an Like mashAllah, someone's walking at night, someone's sleepy the next morning Why are you sleepy at work? I was praying tahajjud all night long, mashAllah Why is your posture off? That eight rak'ahs every night really gets my back Why is your voice so low? Well, you know, I recited a whole juz last night So people that actually would give way Why are your eyes so red? I was crying all night, mashAllah These are things that are obviously exaggerations But Aisha seeing this man, she's totally bothered by it And realized Aisha radiAllahu anha herself is a woman that prays qiyam And is known and distinguished by her tahajjud So her response, she said, rahimAllahu umar She said, may Allah have mercy on Umar radiAllahu anhu He was from shuyukh al-qurra'an He was from the leaders of the reciters
Meaning he was from the people kana wallahi min shuyukh al-qurra'an He was one of the people that would recite all night long But despite that, idha masha asra'a When he walked, he walked fast wa idha qala asma'a And when he spoke, he projected He made sure his voice was heard There was no tiredness in his voice wa idha dharaba awja'a And when he hit, he hit hard In one narration, when he fed, he fed generously Even though he didn't have much food in his home Meaning that this walking, Aisha radiAllahu anhu was saying This walking is a walk of riya' It's a walk of showing off And so just as, you know, yamshoona ala al-ardi hawna There's the pride, you know, the pride in your tribe Obviously in those times, the pride in your strength Or your physical, you know, abilities Or your posture, pride because you have wealth Pride because you drive a certain car Pride because of your position Those are all types of pride But religious pride can actually manifest false humility And that is also riya' and condemned in this That's also a showing off that's condemned in this ayah Okay, people that would walk slowly or humbly But in a way that portrays a false sense of humility also For the same purpose that someone else would be showing off Using another reason or on the basis of something else That they have, this person projecting a false sense of religious pride So, Umar ibn Abdul Aziz radiAllahu anhu We find a narration about him in this regard Waqsid fee mashika Umar ibn Abdul Aziz radiAllahu anhu He says that, you know, he was raised to walk in a certain way Because he was from the nobles of Bani Umayyah And so they were told, they were taught to walk a certain way And you know, one day when he was walking Someone told him, ya ameer al mu'mineen, slow down Why are you walking that way? And Umar ibn Abdul Aziz radiAllahu anhu He apologized, he said, well, that's how we were taught to walk
That the children of the nobles of Bani Umayyah Were taught to walk in a certain way And subhanAllah, he was trying to shake it off He was trying to learn how to not walk in a way That demonstrated a sense of pride And that's why when you read about the shama'il of the Prophet ﷺ Description of the Messenger ﷺ And you read about his walking The Prophet ﷺ is described as walking not too fast nor too slow He walked like he had somewhere to be, alayhi salatu wasalam So you had to keep up with him But it wasn't an arrogant walk It wasn't a boastful walk But the Prophet ﷺ would walk like he had to be somewhere Okay, so he had a busy walk ﷺ, not a boastful walk And so again, we think about body language here And how we carry that, you know, through our voices Through the way that we walk But there's a deeper meaning to this And this is really what I want to get to And, you know, subhanAllah, it's beautiful How Allah عز و جل words this idea of humility here Some of the scholars say that mentioning the ard Mentioning the earth, الذين يمشون على الأرض هون Those who walk on this earth lightly, with ease Is to remind you that you are from the earth You are from this ard This is what you're made of You are walking on yourself You are walking on what you are made of And so this is a reminder that منها خلقناكم و فيها نعيدكم That this is what we created you from And this is what you will return to What your feet are upon every single day as you walk You are walking on yourself You are walking on your origin And you are walking on your return, okay This is where you came from This is what you will go back to And this is where you will be resurrected from What does this mean? So the obvious part of this, first and foremost Is our essence in regards to Allah سبحانه وتعالى, right? That Allah سبحانه وتعالى created us from this earth
Because we are all the children of Adam عليه السلام And Adam is from Turab, Adam is from dirt So the obvious, you know, humility to Ar-Rahman Humility to the most merciful But there are two beautiful lessons That we can take from this as well Number one, in relation to your own essence So the first lesson is in relation to your own essence You know how they say people become arrogant When they forget where they came from, okay They forget where they came from That's also true with the earth You rise from the earth and you never leave it You're constantly, you know, clinging to the ground Only to be buried in it inevitably when the time comes, right? You are reminded by virtue of being on this earth That this is who you are and this is where you come from And do not forget where you came from Because when you forget where you came from That's when arrogance and pride develop, right? And so this is Allah Azawajal's way of telling you Remember where you came from And this is not the only way that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala Tells us to remember where we came from, right? Allah takes us back to the process of our birth, right? And if you remember that you came from Nutfah That you came from that dirty drop of fluid It should humble you And so here as you go out with your, you know, about your business every day As you are clung to the earth As you are walking on the earth Realize you're walking on your own essence You are treading upon your own essence So that's the first thing It's in regards to how you view yourself Don't forget where you came from تمشون على الأرض وأنت من الأرض You walk on this earth and you are from this earth The second thing is in relation to the world around you And the people around you So كلكم من آدم وأدم من ترى You are all the children of Adam and Adam is from dirt And so you don't have تكبر You don't have pride with anyone else
Because you realize that you are from the same material as them And that all of the distinctions, the worldly distinctions Are not distinctions in the sight of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala They're false distinctions The only true distinction is Taqwa Is God consciousness And that's something, a Taqwa ha-Huna that's concealed in the heart And so you don't belittle people on the basis of their race On the basis of their education level On the basis of their wealth On the basis of their status You don't belittle people You don't look down on other people Because you realize we came from the same thing And you know what, when we go to the earth We will all be buried in the exact same way And to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala We are all the same except by virtue of Taqwa By virtue of God consciousness And so you remember that the person in front of you Because realize all of these verses are going to be about how you deal with people The person in front of you is made from what you are made from And will return to the same earth that you will return to And will return to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala just like you And the only thing that will distinguish you on that day Are your good deeds So those are the two ways that we understand And the benefits of The next thing is, you know, what does it mean to have a subtle presence? And this is really what the, you know, what the verse is talking about Is having a humble presence, okay? And so the scholars say this is comprehensive Like when the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says Whoever lowers themselves for Allah, Allah elevates them What does it mean to have a subtle presence? The scholars mentioned a few things here They mentioned that you don't make people get up for you They mentioned that you don't make gatherings uncomfortable You know, by your presence And there are many ways to make a gathering uncomfortable
You know, people don't have this idea that you have grand expectations of them That when you enter the room, it's a heavy presence You don't let others always serve you Mujahid Rahimallah Mujahid Rahimallah, he says that I accompanied Ibn Umar R.A. For, you know, many years, many journeys And I did it so that I could serve him So I could do khidmah to him But he ended up doing more khidmah to me Right? So this idea that you don't let people serve you You don't let people carry your things You don't get easily agitated to where people are afraid of saying certain things around you Because they know that your presence is heavy And so they always have to watch their words carefully Because you have a hot temper You don't harm the gathering You're not loud You don't disturb people You don't cause other pollution to the world around you By the way, don't worry, I'm not sick, inshallah I just forgot to grab my cup of water Okay So the point is that, you know, you have to actually ask yourself When I walk into a room of people What does that do? Right? What type of message does it send to the gathering? And there's a difference between people honoring you Because you're a noble person Noble akhlaq, noble characteristics Like Uthman radiallahu ta'ala anhu When Uthman radiallahu ta'ala anhu came in upon the Prophet ﷺ The Prophet ﷺ would sit up and fix his garments And he said, should I not be shy from a man Whom even the angels are shy from, radiallahu ta'ala anhu So what does your presence do to the gathering? And then inshallah ta'ala, you know, I'll just mention a few more things And I think my throat is telling me I should stop Even though I don't have a sore throat Alhamdulillah, I just need to get some water
What does it mean to have humility with your parents? What does it mean to have a subtle presence with your parents? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says وَخْفِدْ لَهُمَا جَنَاحَ الْذُلِّ مِنَ الرَّحْمَةِ Subhanallah, look at the language that Allah azawajal uses That you lower your wing in humility من الذلِّ You lower your wing in humility And rahma, and mercy And we are here described as ibadur rahma So what does it mean to not, you know When you're a kid and your parents call upon you And you're slow to respond to them Or you give them a hard time That's one thing, but then when your parents get old In particular, and you're serving them How do you make them feel when you serve them? Do you make it known to them? Is it a heavy presence? Like fine, I'll do this for you Or is it, you know, I'm honored to serve you The subtle presence in the home The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam When he would come home, Aisha radiallahu ta'ala anha She was asked about his home life She said, كان في خدمة أهله He was so simple, and he was in the service of his family He would milk his own sheep, he would patch his own clothes He'd go to the market to buy his own things He would sit and he would eat with servants He would initiate the salam to others You know, he was just so simple salallahu alayhi wa sallam He didn't have a heavy presence when he came home A subtle presence in when you admonish people Anas ibn Malik radiallahu ta'ala anhu Talking about how the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam Was never harsh with him And that, you know, that one time the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam Sent him on an errand The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam Just gently made his presence known And Anas radiallahu anhu was embarrassed That he didn't do what the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam Had sent him out to do So he went out and he did it And so the last thing I'll say here is The way the scholars describe this idea of يمشون على الأرض هون
In a proactive way is that you bring a calming effect To the environment around you You give people salam, you smile at people You put people at ease You assist people with heavy objects You serve people in your vicinity You bring a subtle, comforting, calm presence Not an arrogant or a boastful one And so that is the first way That these people are described And insha'Allah ta'ala tomorrow we will continue with وَإِذَا خَاطَبَهُمَ الْجَاهِدُونَ قَالُوا سَلَامًا And also to remind everyone insha'Allah ta'ala We'll have our virtual khutbah At 2pm Eastern insha'Allah ta'ala So I will see you all then insha'Allah ta'ala as well And of course Quran 30 for 30 And we'll try to see if we can re-record This past session insha'Allah ta'ala Since we had issues with Zoom and technology So Jazakumullahu khayran We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to make us amongst those That tread the earth lightly That the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam mentioned That they can enter a gathering and leave a gathering Without even being noticed But they are the celebrated awliya of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala The people that don't cause apprehension or harm To those around them But people that are gentle with everyone around them The people that serve rather than expect to be served The people who speak with a voice and a tone That is comforting and not stressful People who bring sakinah to the environments around them Tranquility to the environments around them And a people that humble themselves first and foremost To Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala And in the process are honored by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Allahumma ameen Insha'Allah ta'ala see you all tomorrow Jazakumullahu khayran Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh
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